High-quality education likely to have long-term impact on later life cognition

A study of more than 2200 adults who attended US high schools in the early 1960s found that those who attended higherquality schools had better cognitive function 60 years laterThe findings were published May 2 in the journal Alzheimers amp Dementia Diagnosis Assessment amp Disease Monitoring in a paper titled High school quality is associated with cognition 58 years laterOur study establishes a link between highquality education and better latelife cognition and suggests that increased investment in schools especially those that serve Black children could be a powerful strategy to improve cognitive health among older adults in the United States says Jennifer Manly PhD professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the studyThe study led by Manly and Dominika Seblova PhD a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia used data from Project Talent a 1960 survey of high school students across the United States and followup data collected in the Project Talent Aging StudyThe researchers examined relationships between six indicators of school quality and several measures of cognitive performance in participants nearly 60 years after they left high schoolSince highquality schools may be especially beneficial for people from disadvantaged backgrounds the researchers also examined whether associations differed by geography sexgender and race and ethnicity the survey only included sufficient data from Black and white respondentsTeacher training linked to latelife cognition in studentsThe researchers found that attending a school with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the most consistent predictor of better laterlife cognition especially language fluency for example coming up with words within a category Attending a school with a high number of graduatelevel teachers was approximately equivalent to the difference in cognition between a 70yearold and someone who is one to three years older Other indicators of school quality were associated with some but not all measures of cognitive performanceManly and Seblova say many reasons may explain why attending schools with welltrained teachers may affect laterlife cognition Instruction provided by more experienced and knowledgeable teachers might be more intellectually stimulating and provide additional neural or cognitive benefits Seblova says and attending higherquality schools may also influence life trajectory leading to university education and greater earnings which are in turn linked to better cognition in later lifeGreater impact on Black studentsThough the associations between school quality and latelife cognition were similar between white and Black students Black participants were more likely to have attended schools of lower qualityRacial equity in school quality has never been achieved in the United States and school racial segregation has grown more extreme in recent decades so this issue is still a substantial problem says ManlyFor example a 2016 survey found that US schools attended by nonwhite students had twice as many inexperienced teachers as schools attended by predominantly white studentsRacial inequalities in school quality may contribute to persistent disparities in latelife cognitive outcomes for decades to come Manly addsJennifer Manly PhD is a professor in the Department of Neurology the Gertrude H Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimers Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia UniversityAlso Read Experts reveal how extreme positivity can impact mental health and wellnessThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever